Unemployment, ideological extremism and homosexuality are the issues that most concern the Saudi youth at present according research conducted by the National Center for Youth Studies aimed at determining priority research areas.
The National Center for Youth Studies contacted government and private bodies to find out about the key issues affecting Saudi youth. A large number of young men, women and experts were asked their opinions on these issues. The Center recently announced the results of the first stage of the project, which aims to specify priority research areas and will be completed within approximately six months.
Dr Saleh al Nassar, the Secretary-General of the National Center for Youth Studies affiliated to King Saud University in Riyadh, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the priority research areas will support the Center’s research plan. “We hope that when the list of priority research areas on issues that concern the youth is completed it will be a starting point for teaching staff and postgraduate research,” said al Nasser, stressing that the Center will support and facilitate the work of researchers who will focus on any of these issues in their work.
Al Nasser stated that there were twenty main issues, and the one that causes most concern amongst the youth is unemployment. The fear of unemployment that is gripping a large number of young men and women could be explained by recent reports that the unemployment rate in Saudi Arabia is 10 per cent of the entire population. The unemployment rate among young men is 6.8 per cent compared to 26.9 per cent among young women.
For his part, Dr. Nizar al Salih, the Assistant Secretary-General of the National Center for Youth Studies, said, “The following can be seen: young men see the lack of skills, failure to find a suitable job and homosexuality as the key issues, whilst girls are of the view that the lack of organizational skills, unemployment and the low levels of readership are keys issues, whilst experts consider unemployment, the shortage in labour market skills and the lack of organizational skills key issues.”
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